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SIX
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
NOVEMBER 18, 1933
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia
RICHARD REID, Editor
1409 Lamar Building Augusta. Georgia
Subscription Price $2.00 Per Year
Published semi-monthly by the Publicity Department
with the Approbation of the Most. Rev. Bishops of
Raleigh, Charleston, Saveonah, St. Augustine, Mobile,
Natchez and Nashville and of the Rt Rev. Abbot,
Ordinary of Belmont.
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service the Catholic Press
Association of the United States, the Georgia Press
Association and the National Editorial Association.
FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
George J. Callahan, 240 Broadway. New York
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1931-1932
ALFRED M. BATTEY, Augusta President
P. H. RICE, K. C. S. G., Augusta President-Emeritus
J. J. HAVERTY, K. S. G., Atlanta ...First Vice-President
J. B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer
RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director
MIPS CFCILE. FERRY. Augusta. Asst. Publicity Director
Vol. XIV. November 18, 1933 No. 2U
Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, af the Post
Office at Augusta, Ga., under act of March, 1879. Ac
cepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided
for in Section 1103, Act. of October 3, 1917, authorized
September 1. 1921.
Our-President Emeritus
I T is seldom in the history of the Church in the United
States that one has achieved such a record in lay
activity as Capt. P. H. Rice. K. C. S. G., who retired at
the Macon convention after serving the Catholic Lay
men’s Association of Georgia as president for fourteen
years.
For over fifty years Captain Rice has been active in
parish, local, Diocesan and national Catholic move
ments. In his younger days he was prominent in Catho
lic dramatics. For many years he was captain of the
Sacred Heart Cadets in Augusta and in the Diocesan
temperance movement of which it was a part; there is no
way of estimating the number of young men he influ
enced along the path of sobriety and useful citizenship,
many of whom would have followed the line of least
resistance if it were not for his interest and the bene
ficial effects of the movement of which he was for
decades the leading factor in Augusta.
He was a pioneer member of the Knights of Columbus
in the Southeast, and his efforts were largely instru
mental in the introduction of the order in this section
and in its spread. He was the first grand knight of Pat-
trick Walsh Council, Augusta, serving in that capacity
longer than any other man or even group of two or three
grand knights; he was grand knight during the war when
thousands of Catholics came to the city with the Penn
sylvania troops at Camp Hancock. It was mainly
through his efforts that the Knights of Columbus pro
vided facilities for their welfare. As state deputy of the
Knights of Columbus, as Master of the Fourth Degree fot
the Carolinas and Georgia, and as a member of the
supreme board of directors, he achieved a national
reputation in K. of C. circles.
But it is ns president of the Catholic Laymen's Asso
ciation of Georgia that Captain Rice is best known. The
Association itself is a development of work he started as
state deputy of the Knights of Columbus. No man was
more responsible than he for the association’s organiza
tion, and no man has done more to win for it the reputa
tion its work has earned for it than he. A decade ago
his record in parish, diocesan and national Catholic ac
tivities won him Knighthood in the Order of St. Gregory
the Great, with the rank of commander, yet perhaps his
best work has been accomplished in the intervening
years.
Although Captain Rice has retired from the active
presidency of the Association, those closest to him know
that his interest will be the same as it was not only
during his years of service but also before he became
president, when he was the Association’s most active
member. As President Emeritus the Association salutes
him, and prays that he will be spared many a long and
happy year to bear that title and to continue his in
valuable assistance to the work he loves so well and has
•erved so valiantly and effectively.
President Alfred M. Battey
T HE Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia has
been singularly fortunate in its presidents. Its
first president was A. J. Long, one of Macon’s leading
citizens, and a business leader of influence in every
part of Georgia. Then came Jack J. Spalding, distin
guished lawyer and financial and industrial leader,
Knight of St. Gregory, Knight of Malta and Laetare
Medalist. Thomas F. Walsh, Jr., noted member of the
Savannah Bar, state deputy of the Knights of Columbus,
which he has served as president of the Augusta branch,
as a member of the finance committee and in other ca
pacities, a former grand knight of Patrick Walsh Council,
Augusta, and at one time state secretary of the Knights
of Columbus, he has been prepared for his new office by
a wealth of experience and a record of achievement
which are most encouraging to all those who hold the
future of our Association at heart
Mr. Battey is one of Augusta’s most widely known,
highly respected and successful business leaders. He
was educated at Sacred Heart College, Augusta, and at
the Sorbonne in Paris. He has traveled extensively in
this country and in Europe, and has the broad vision and
comprehensive outlook characteristic of a man truly
Catholic. The Bulletin wishes and predicts for him a
most successful administration.
The Spirit af Notre Dame
W HAT'S the matter with Notre Dame? There was
a time when elevens swept out of South Bend like
whirlwinds, leaving towering football records in ruins
in their wake. This year the Indiana gridiron luminaries
not only were defeated four times in succession, but
held scoreless by teams which not long ago hardly fur
nished opposition enough to give Rockne’s warriors ex
ercise.
The Associated Press sent a staff writer to Notre Dame
to survey the situation. He reports:
“There is no crepe on the golden dome of Notre Dame
that reflects the rays of an Indian summer sun above
the autumn foliage of the university campus.** Despite
the reverses of the successors of the Four Horsemen and
their charioteers, “the effects appear less serious to
those within than to a host of others outside the uni
versity.”
Father John O’Hara, C. S. C., acting president of the
university, is as serene as President Roosevelt the night
of the second Tuesday of last November.
“Notre Dame has a background of tradition that ex
tends over ninety-one years,” he said. “There is not the
slightest chance of our losing a sense of balance and pro
portion merely because we lose a few football games.
We have lost them before, then, as now, in good spirit.
Rockne’s team of 1928 lost four games without the world
coming to an end. I believe that team enjoyed its sea
son and got equally much, if not more, out of it than
some of our unbeaten teams.”
This will convince some fair-weather friends of Notre
Dame that the university needs a new president as well
as a change in the backfield, coaches and student body.
But to those who judge by intrinsic worth it is a heart
ening indication that Notre Dame is as always truly
Catholic, with its eyes on eternal verities and not
transient glory.
And lest someone suggest the fable of the fox and the
grapes, we should like to remark that there are several
Catholic colleges with clean slates this year, and our
own Alma Mater took Harvard and Brown into camp on
successive Saturdays.
Religion in Education
T HE Catholic Church has never ceased to insist on
the necessity of religion in education, a principle
echoed by the founders of the nation but regarded as
medieval and outworn by many who find themselves in
positions of great responsibility and power in the educa
tional world.
Although all the world were against her, the Church
would still insist on this as well as other fundamental
principles, regardless of the cost to her. Truth does not
depend cm majority opinion in any field, for majority
opinions are as unstable as weather vanes, while truth
is immutable.
It is heartening, however, to note increasing recogni
tion of this principle in educational circles throughout
the world. Recently, for instance, Lord Irwin, English
Minister of Education, a Protestant, in opening in Liver
pool a training college for women teachers under the
direction of the Lancashire County Council asserted:
“Every training college, in my judgment, needs a re
ligious background if it is to do its work; for more is it
realized that religion is the essence and the condition of
character.
“In these days I do not hesitate to assert my convic
tion that no system of State education can afford to ig
nore this vital element
“If it is true that we want character-training, and if
you want your character-training to be real, and if it
is true, as I believe, that that reality can only come from
religion, then formal religious instruction is not suffici
Dixie Musings
THE EDITOR
IN IRELAND
Ireland was once “the land of saints
and scholars.” Ireland is Catholic,
and Ireland in its Catholic aspects,
like the Church itself, does not
change. Its solid scholarship is over
shadowed for the moment by the re
putation of less profound but more
skillfully publicized learning. But
neither the clouds of shifting modem
philosophies nor the storms of cur
rent intellectual and moral doubt can
dim the sanctity which still radiates
from the land of St. Patrick.
We first saw the shores of Ireland
from the deck of the S. S. Hibernia,
ploughing the Irish Sea from Holy-
head in Wales to Kingston, at the
mouth of Dublin’s Liffey. Like a
green cloud it lifted its hills apd val
leys from the restless waters in the
haze of a September afternoon. But
it was divided attention attention we
gave the entrancing scene; gazing at
it too, with, glistening eyes, were
Irish pilgrims, led by their Bishop,
returning from Rome and a Holy Year
pilgrimage. That was our first im
pression of Ireland; our last was the
stately edifice at Cobh, crowning the
high hills overlooking the bay, hold
ing aloft the Cross of Christ like a
sentry over the land, and passengers
at Holy Mass on the ship as it steamed
out of the harbor.
Between Dublin and Cobh, which
in the days of our fathers was call
ed Queenstown, we saw on all sides
simple, solemn, stirring demonstra
tions of a faith unsurpassed anywhere
and equaled at only such sacred
places as Rome, Lisieux and a few
other favored spots.
The atmosphere of Ireland is Cath
olic—positively Catholic, not nega
tively, as in some other so-called
Catholic countries of Europe. The
difference is illustrated by the atti
tude toward the clergy. In some
dominantly Catholic countries the
clergy are respected but as they walk
the streets of the cities it is not the
custom to salute them, as Catholics
do in the United States. “There are
so many of them,” the people explain;
perhaps one to about every thousand
Catholics. There are just as many in
Dublin, and as they go down Grafton
or Westmoreland Streets they are sa
luted as often as a major in an
S. A. T. C. camp.
In Dublin we visited numerous
churches, and never one which was
not alive with people—not with pious
elderly women, but with men, women
and children, of all ages and appar
ently of all classes. A nine o’clock
Mass at a Carmelite church on a week
day morning was attended by a con
gregation which filled the spacious
church, of which Daniel O’Connell
was a benefactor; 11:30 found the
Gardiner Street Church of the Jesuit
Fathers looking as though a parish
Sunday Mass was about to start; at
five in the evening, the Capuchin
church could have started a mission
with what would be considered an
encouraging congregation, and the
Marist Church at the seven o’clock
Mass on the first Friday resembled
our popular nine o’clock Masses on
Sunday. And none of these are
parish churches.
It was our pleasure to meet a num
ber of Irish journalists in Dublin, in
cluding Mr. William H. Brayden, the
correspondent in Ireland for our Na
tional Catholic Welfare Conference
News Service. Mr. Brayden has had
a distinguished career in journalism,
as the representative of our press, as
Associated Press representative, as a
representative of influential news
papers at the Peace Conference, and
in other distinguished capacities.
At the Jesuit Church on Gardiner
Street we met the editor of the famed
Sacred Heart Messenger, who in many
ways resembles our own Father Wil
frid Parsons, S. J., editor of "America.”
He has a comprehensive knowledge of
our American Catholic press, knows
personally many of those laboring for
it, and was kind enough to reveal an
acquaintance with the work of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association.
After sending our card in to
Father Senan, editor of the Father
Matthew Record and the Capuchin
Annual, we were warmly welcomed,
and Father Senan demonstrated not
only his acquaintance with The Bul
letin but with the names of persons
figuring in its columns. It was
through a letter from Father Senan
asking that this publication be placed
on the exchange list of the Father
Mathew Record that we first became
acquainted with him; his request
was prompted by reading of Catholic
Laymens’ Association activities.
Newspapermen are anxious to get
opinions of Americans on the situa
tion there. We expressed ours that
it was a matter for the Irish people to
decide, and for an outsider to ex
press an opinion on what the Irish
people should do would be presump
tuous. The newspapermen were dis
appointed, but we thereby avoided
controversy, unlike an Englishman
who gave his opinion of the NRA and
the Roosevelt administration to a re
porter in Augusta several days ago
and no doubt is sorry now.
When President DeValera was in
Georgia fourteen years ago we met
him in Augusta; we were active
then in the Friends of Irish Freedom.
An appointment was made for us to
see him one afternoon at the Govern
ment House in Dublin, but he was
called away the previous evening, and
our schedule would not allow us to
stay over for an engagement the day
following, a circumstance we regret
ted very much. We had the pleasure
of meeting his secretary, Mr. Moyni-
han, however, and of having a plea
sant exchange of conversation with
him. We got a glimpse on the street
of Mr. Cosgrave, whom Mr. DeValera
succeeded as president; he is still a
man of mighty influence in Ireland.
One glorious Dublin afternoon we
called on the Marist Fathers, and met
Father Dawson, whose father was for
merly Lord Mayor of Dublin. There
were inquiries about our Most Rev.
Bishop, who was a visitor there at
the time of the Eucharistic Congress
last year; and about a number of other
Marists whose names are household
words in Atlanta, on the Southeast
Georgia missions and elsewhere in
the state. And it was at the Marist
Church that we received our October
First Friday Communion.
Another visit of particular interest
was that to the Catholic Truth So
ciety of Ireland, where we found that
the Catholic Laymen’s Association of
Georgia was as familiar to the offi
cials as their organization is to us.
The Catholic Truth Societv of Ireland
is engaged largely in publishing pam-
nhlets and in the distribution of
books. Some of the books and nearly
all of the pamohlets it publishes it
self; in the excellence, variety and at
tractiveness of its pamnhlets the so
ciety comoares verv favorably with
any organization of its kind with
which we have had contact anywhere.
One of our readers once wrote to
us to denlore the fact that the editor
of The Bulletin was not of Irish ex
traction. Well, we located a number
of uncles and aunts and cousins in
Tr eland. and were reminded tha + the
Most R°v. Lawrence Gaughran. D. D.,
late Bishop of Meath, who died four
vears ago, was a cousin of our na-
temal grandfather. Perhaps we’ll get
that subscriber back again on this
record.
Our hotel in Dublin was the Shel-
boume, opnosite St. Stenhen’s Green.
A sign in the elevator advised guests
that anyone who wished to lock his
room could get a key at the office.
But it, gave you the imoression that
the office would have its own ooinion
of anvone so suspicious as to want to
lock his door.
There was an Oriental-looking
young lady at the hotel, whom we as
sumed was a kinsman of some mem
ber of the diolomatic corps. But the
newsoaoers revealed our error to us;
she was Annie May Wong, film star,
in Dublin for an appearance in per
son.
Sir Marlin Melvin, publisher of The
Universe. London, the Catholic news-
pa oer with the largest circulation of
any in the world, and the publica
tion which recently nromoted the
epochal pilgrimage of the unemploy
ed to Rome came to the Shelbourne
the night before we left. Sir Martin
was knighted by King George some
months ago.
Next to the Catholic atmosphere, of
Ireland, one is impressed by the spirit
of patriotism with wMch the air
seems to be charged. There is dif
ference of opinion about the best
policy to be adooted, a difference of
opinion which amazes our Republi
cans and Democrats^ in their breath
ing spells between battles, but there
is no doubt about the devotion of all
factions to their country. There are
many reminders of the uprisings of
what a guide book calls “misguided
spirits” and “so-called patriots”, but
these “misguided spirits” and “so-call
ed patriots” won for Ireland the free
dom she now enioys. It was the
“misguided spirits” and so-called pa
triots” like Washington who won free
dom for our own nation.
and a recognized lay representative of the Church’s in
terest in Savannah, succeeded Mr. Spalding, followed by
Captain Rice, now honored by the Association as presi
dent emeritus.
In the election of Alfred M. Battey of Augusta to suc
ceed Captain Rice, the Association maintains the high
standard it has always had in the presidency. A native
•f Augusta, a member of families which have been
prominent in the affairs of the state since the earliest
a pioneer himself in the work of the Association,
ent, and you need the influence that is only communi
cated by the example of personal conviction and per
sonal enthusiasm.
“Many of us have long enough memories to know that
in times past these matters have aroused bitter contro
versy; but I am greatly mistaken if I do not see all over
England a great change of judgment in this matter aris
ing from the conviction that the time has come when
Christian people of whatever denomination have got to
stand four-square together if they are going to save their
country and the world from real dangers.”
We also met members of the Irish
Catholic, the Irish Herald, the Irish
Press and other newspapers. Irish
newspapers, and European news
papers in general, differ in makeup
from those in the United States, but
in the matter of equipment and typo
graphical excellence they are not in
ferior. They use more pictures, as a
rule, than our newspapers do. We
inspected the engraving plant of the
Irish Press, a plant which is at least
the equal d any in its class in the
United States with which we are fa
miliar, considered from the stand
point of circulation.
The memory of the great Eucharis
tic Congress is still fresh in the
memory of the Deople of Dublin and
Ireland. The O’Connell bridge, where
the final Benediction was given, is in
the heart of Dublin; our last view of
it was from the top of the Nelson
Column, Dublin’s Eiffel Tower.
We discover&d that there were two
fellow Holy Cross alumni in Dublin.
Both are getting along very nicely.
One is the Most Rev. Paschal Rob
inson, O. F. M. } D. D., Apostolic
(Continued on Page 10)